I installed a fresh Antergos Xfce a few days ago because I was tired of GNOME and wanted something lighter. But after installing I’ve noticed there were several GNOME packages already preinstalled. After I removed a few of them(wich ended up removing all of GNOME packages because of dependencies), everything broke, the Whisker Menu, the Plank, I couldn’t end the session, I had to reboot, after reboot display manager broke either and I couldn’t login.

So… if one wishes just to use just Xfce you are forced to use GNOME packages. I’m not using Antergos anymore because of these critical issues, I’m using another distro… Also I think I’ve had enough with Arch based distros for now… I wiped the whole thing and I’m using Debian Xfce now.

So… if one wishes just to use just Xfce you are forced to use GNOME packages.

Yes, some of them.

I’m not using Antergos anymore because of these critical issues, I’m using another distro

I had to reboot, after reboot display manager broke either and I couldn’t login.

You could login with tty, reinstall xfce4 packages, with sudo pacman -S xfce4 xfce4-goodies, reboot and done.
At least you could have asked for help.

When removing packages you need to pay attention to what’s being uninstalled.

Don’t blame Antergos on that, when i started using Antergos i broken it many times, and was forced to reinstall it. It seems you did the same.

Debian has a very small repository, if you had a good taste of the Arch/Antergos repositories and AUR you won’t be able to keep using Debian; BELIEVE ME!

Also you must think with yourself if you want a stable system with small repository and not manny updates, or if you want a rolling release, stable (as long as we don’t mess with it that much). Everyone has it’s own preferences, and “distro hope” different things.

@joekamprad I’ve break Desktop Environments and Display Managers a few times, switching and installing multiple at once or by removing packages, they always break for some reason, some DEs uses one type of DM that other DE is not compatible, it breaks. Display Manager should be universal to prevent that from happening, it’s never a pleasant experience when those things happen. It’s not a Antergos thing, it’s a Linux thing, bad choices made by a lot of developers and it’s probably intentional, to prevent people from switching DEs back and forth. The ideal would be install as many DEs as you wish and use them whenever you want just by closing the session and entering other DE session, but in real life apparently this is not possible without creating issues and having to fix them manually almost everytime.

Debian is way far from “end-user/begginer/friendly”, is not easy to install and use, I think this is why there so many distros that were based on Debian, they wanted to deliver a better experience tweaking a few things. Debian has that free software policy that ruins the installer because most wifi firmware/drivers are not free, so your wifi doesn’t work and you can’t install if you don’t have a cable.

Synaptic(the package installer) is bad, it’s way worse than Pamac but I had many issues with Pamac both with Manjaro and Antergos. I already have had one freeze with Synaptic trying to install the noto fonts(yeah, bugs installing fonts, that happened), the fans went crazy everything was frozen and I had to hard reset. Other bug: I suspended the session and there was no Wifi anymore, I had to reboot to make wifi work again… That thing “Debian is stable” is bit of a myth, and Debian is overrated. You have to configure a lot of stuff to make it work as a real operational system, for the end-user that just want a working desktop Debian is a really bad choice, I would never recommend to anyone that have never used Linux before, is not for begginers at all.

…and a few others a few years ago like openSUSE and Fedora, and others that I don’t remember.

Top 3 best distros for desktop in my opinion:

Antergos

Linux Mint

Manjaro

Arch I gave up in the beginning of the installation, you shouldn’t have to follow a step-by-step written somewhere to install something and is a long list of what to do, I don’t have a very good memory. Arch probably is one the best out there but if I can’t install it, is not the best for me. ArchBang I installed the core with the installer but you have to manually configure a lot of things, so I didn’t go any further than that.

I’ve tested a bunch of Desktop Environments too, in order of preference(top of the list I like more):

@ssspacez
I’d recommend you select one distro (maybe Antergos Xfce?) and use it for a while (a few months or more) in order to get to know it really well. Distro hopping is not probably very helpful in understanding how linux distros really work.

Antergos (and Manjaro’s stable branch) have very recent software in comparison to many other distros, and are much easier to install than Arch. If you like to have up-to-date software, then these are one of the best distros to choose. And they sometimes have stability issues; by looking at the Arch web page you’ll get important information about latest changes, including possible warnings. Wise to look at it before updating.

If you want stability (and older software), then Debian based distros are among the best.

I’d recommend you select one distro (maybe Antergos Xfce?) and use it for a while

I already did that, I used Ubuntu and Linux Mint for a long time.

Distro hopping is not probably very helpful in understanding how linux distros really work.

I disagree, there are a lot of garbage distros out there, most of them are garbage, this is the correct term, that’s why Linux have only ~3% market share and ordinary people usually don’t install it(and of course because Windows comes preinstalled in 90% of the computers or more). Most of the distros didn’t last 1 day or 1 week on the disk partitions.

For the end-user there are only 4 options nowadays: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro or Antergos. That’s it, the rest is not going to work for the average people anytime soon because of several issues, not only the distro itself, but the developers, the community, documentation, support, forums, guides, etc, all the rest that is need for a distro to work.

I made some experiences with multi-de systems too in the past, and my experience is: Never add/remove DEs to/from an existing productivity system. If you want to use a different DE, reinstall the whole system to avoid problems as described.
J.

Those distros do not really provide much learning experience about how a linux system works. Rolling distros like Arch and Gentoo do provide learning experience. Antergos and Manjaro provide it, too, but just they make installation easier.

I disagree, there are a lot of garbage distros out there, most of them are garbage, this is the correct …

I quite don’t follow what you disagree about…

For the end-user there are only 4 options nowadays: Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro or Antergos.

Linux systems are very much about user’s involvement in it. It is (initially and mostly) from users to other users.

If you think like a typical Windows user but still like to use Linux systems, then your choice is Ubuntu or Mint (even though Windows still would offer a better experience!).

But if you are willing to learn (and give, not just take), then distros like Arch, Antergos and Manjaro are more appealing. Naturally it takes more time to learn though, so they are not for everybody.